Amendment of Chapter 3 of Part 38 of Principal Act (other obligations and returns)

28. The Principal Act is amended in Chapter 3 of Part 38 by inserting the following after section 891E:

“Returns of certain information by financial institutions

891F. (1) This section provides for the collection and reporting of certain information in respect of financial accounts held by any person who is regarded by virtue of the laws of a jurisdiction other than the State as resident in that jurisdiction for the purposes of tax.

(2) In this section—

‘the standard’ means the Standard for Automatic Exchange of Financial Account Information approved on 15 July 2014 by the Council of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development;

‘account holder’, ‘financial account’, ‘high value account’, ‘lower value account’, ‘reportable account’, ‘reporting financial institution’ and ‘TIN’ have the meanings respectively given to them by Section VIII of the standard.

(3) The Revenue Commissioners, with the consent of the Minister for Finance, may make regulations under this section with respect to the return by a reporting financial institution of information on reportable accounts held, managed or administered by that reporting financial institution.

(4) In addition to the specification in the regulations of a requirement that reporting financial institutions make a return to the Revenue Commissioners of information in relation to reportable accounts, regulations under this section may (without prejudice to the generality of subsection (3)) include provisions—

(a) determining the date by which a return required to be made under the regulations shall be made to the Revenue Commissioners,

(b) prescribing the manner in which returns are to be made,

(c) specifying the information to be reported in a return by the reporting financial institution, to the Revenue Commissioners, in relation to reportable accounts and, where different information is to be reported for different years, specifying the information to be reported for each of those years,

(d) specifying—

(i) the currency in which the reporting financial institution is required to report, and

(ii) the rules for conversion of amounts, denominated in another currency, into the currency, referred to in subparagraph (i), for the purposes of a return under the regulations,

(f) specifying the records and documents that must be examined or obtained by the reporting financial institution to enable the institution to identify reportable accounts,

(g) specifying the records and documents used to identify reportable accounts that must be retained by the reporting financial institution,

(h) specifying additional requirements in relation to the examination of high value accounts and lower value accounts,

(i) setting out the circumstances in which a reporting financial institution is required to aggregate financial accounts held by the same individual or entity for the purposes of identifying reportable accounts as high value accounts or lower value accounts,

(j) specifying the actions to be taken by a reporting financial institution where there is a change in circumstances with respect to the account holder of a financial account,

(k) setting out the conditions under which a reporting financial institution may appoint a third party as its agent to carry out the duties and obligations imposed on it by the regulations,

(l) setting out the circumstances in which a reporting financial institution may make a nil return,

(m) imposing an obligation on—

(i) a reporting financial institution to obtain a TIN from any person—

(I) with whom the institution enters into a contractual relationship, or

(II) for whom the institution undertakes any transaction, on or after a date specified in the regulations, which shall not be earlier than the commencement of the regulations (and such persons are in this paragraph referred to as ‘customers’) for the purposes of including that number in a return under the regulations,

and

(ii) customers to provide a reporting financial institution with their TIN on request by the reporting financial institution where, on or after a date specified in the regulations—

(I) such customers enter into a contractual relationship with the reporting financial institution, or

(II) the reporting financial institution undertakes any transaction for such customers,

being respectively—

(A) a relationship which results in the opening, operation, administration or management of a financial account, or

(B) a transaction which arises in relation to a financial account,

(n) defining ‘books’ and ‘records’ for the purposes of the regulations,

(o) in relation to any of the matters specified in the preceding paragraphs, determining the manner of keeping records and setting the period for the retention of records so kept,

(p) enabling the authorisation of Revenue officers, for the purpose of such officers—

(i) requiring—

(I) the production of books, records or other documents,

(II) the provision of information, explanations and particulars, and

(III) persons to give all such assistance as may reasonably be required and as is specified in the regulations,

in relation to financial accounts within such time as may be specified in the regulations, and

(ii) making extracts from or copies of books, records or other documents or requiring that copies of such books, records and documents be made available,

and

(q) specifying such supplemental and incidental matters as appear to the Revenue Commissioners to be necessary—

(i) to enable persons to fulfil their obligations under the regulations, or

(ii) for the general administration and implementation of the regulations, including—

(I) delegating to a Revenue officer the authority to perform any acts and discharge any functions authorised by this section or the regulations to be performed or discharged by the Revenue Commissioners, and

(II) the authorisation by the Revenue Commissioners of Revenue officers to exercise any powers, to perform any acts or to discharge any functions conferred by this section or by the regulations.

(5) Every regulation made under this section shall be laid before Dáil Éireann as soon as may be after it is made and, if a resolution annulling the regulation is passed by Dáil Éireann within the next 21 days on which Dáil Éireann has sat after the regulation is laid before it, the regulation shall be annulled accordingly, but without prejudice to the validity of anything previously done thereunder.

(6) A Revenue officer authorised for the purpose of regulations under this section may at all reasonable times enter any premises or place of business of a reporting financial institution for the purposes of—

(a) determining whether information—

(i) included in a return made under the regulations by the reporting financial institution was correct and complete, or

(ii) not included in such a return was correctly not so included,

or

(b) examining the procedures put in place by the reporting financial institution for the purposes of ensuring compliance with that institution’s obligations under the regulations.

(7) (a) Section 898O shall apply to—

(i) a failure by a reporting financial institution to deliver a return required under regulations made under this section, and

(ii) the making of an incorrect or incomplete return under those regulations,

as it applies to a failure to deliver a return or to the making of an incorrect or incomplete return referred to in section 898O.

(b) A person who does not comply with—

(i) the requirements of a Revenue officer in the exercise or performance of the officer’s powers or duties under this section or under regulations made under this section, or

(ii) any requirement of such regulations,

shall be liable to a penalty of €1,265.

(8)
Section 4
of the
Post Office Savings Bank Act 1861
shall not apply to the disclosure of information required to be included in a return made under the regulations made under this section and, accordingly, this section shall apply to information to which, but for this subsection, the said section 4 would apply.

(9) Where arrangements are entered into by any person and the main purpose or one of the main purposes of the arrangements, or any part of them, is the avoidance of any of the obligations imposed under this section or regulations thereunder, then this section and those regulations shall apply as if the arrangements, or that part of them, had not been entered into.

(10) Any word or expression which has a meaning given to it by Section VIII of the standard shall, where it is used in regulations made under this section and unless the contrary intention appears, have the same meaning in those regulations as it has in that Section VIII.”.